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Projects

Eyes-Free Car Menus

With members of the Georgia Tech Sonification Lab, I’m currently working on designing a touch-based menu interface that uses sound to reduce the need to look down while driving, while avoiding having to serially scroll through a traditional audio list. This project involves the use of eye-tracking and cognitive load metrics in the context of a driving simulator.

Great Circles: Small Group Car Sharing

The goal of this project was to decrease the barriers to co-ownership of a vehicle by a small group of people through the use of a status, scheduling and management system. The project involved initial research, design, prototyping, and evaluation of the system. I worked with a small team to carry out and document the project over the course of a semester, with a personal focus on research design, project management, and information architecture.

A Model of Error in 2D Pointing Tasks

My Honors thesis project, I developed a model of systematic undershoot in pointing tasks while working in the Computer-Human Interaction Lab at Rice. The ultimate goal of this research is to build a more valid goal-directed movement system into the ACT-R cognitive architecture, which can be used to predictively model human performance in user interfaces. The work included research design, user testing, data processing and interpretation, and literature review.

Optimizing the Traditional Browser Menu

Here, I applied a model of optimal menu highlighting to build a case for traditional menus as a viable alternative to highly consolidated menus. This was written for a class project in Engineering Psychology.

Spatial Screen Sharing

An experiment in passive spatial interactions over a network. I designed and prototyped a system that allows for remote screen sharing of a separate, constantly accessible ‘space,’ for use by family members or friends. This was written in python for a class assignment.

A Lens Model of Expert & Novice Spades Players

Conducted as a project for a course in judgment and decision making, I worked with a small team to conduct a ‘lens model’ analysis of players in the card game Spades. My role included interpretation of the model and study design and logistics.A Lens Model of Expert & Novice Spades Players

Craigslist Usability Analysis

I worked in a small group to produce a document specifying a series of redesign suggestions for the website Craigslist.org, done in the context of improving usability for older adults. My role included summarizing findings, running focus groups, and conducting literature reviews. This was done as a research methods lab assignment.Redesigning_Craigslist

Design of a Self-Pay Surface Lot System

This was an endeavor to decrease cognitive load and error potential in surface lot parking pay stations. My role included information architecture design, cognitive walkthroughs and usability testing.
This was a project for a human factors methods course.Design of a Self-Pay Surface Lot System

SciJam: Educational Music Gaming

Conducted in cooperation with the Rice Chemistry Department, I developed a science education module for an open source a music-rhythm game. I conducted design research into music, rhythm and memory, and used these findings to inform the composer of the music content.

Study, “Gestalt Grouping Leads to Reduced Vernier Flank Interference”

Conducted for the Pomerantz Perception Laboratory at Rice, I ran a study on the effects of grouped flanks on Vernier hyperacuity. This included adaptive stimulus presentation using python, running of participants, and review of existing literature.

Fresh Food Finder

I participated in a two-day ‘hackathon’ event in support of local nonprofits, and researched, designed and prototyped a web-based application designed to encourage and facilitate the acquisition of local, organically produced foods. We were unique among the groups in that we conducted basic preliminary user research and usability testing within the hackathon time constraints.

Portable Oxygen Concentrators: A Human Factors Analysis

Done as a project for a course in medical human factors for medical devices course, this was a brief human factors analysis of several portable oxygen concentrators. The goal was to produce a report which could be used to improve the safety of future devices.

Fitts’ Law and Fullscreen Tabs

Conducted for a research methods course, I worked with a small team to plan and conduct a study on the effects of outer bounds on Fitts’ law, which has implications for the design of tabbed browser interfaces.